This effort is led by Texas PTA and offers a website where students, parents, and anyone can nominate a teacher, librarian, principal, or superintendent who is making a difference in the lives of students.

Diana Rendina writes: "School libraries are starting makerspaces all over the world. It’s an exciting time in education as we rediscover the power of creativity. But many schools rush to start makerspaces so quickly that they neglect building the maker culture. Developing a maker culture is a lot like developing a love of reading, it takes time and persistence and it’s totally worth it. Here’s a few ways that you can work to cultivate a love of making and creativity in your students."

I know Diana's library is an incredible example of a makerspace, but that just didn't work for us. We are going to bring back a simpler, more focused version once our remodel is complete. Our high school librarian has set up a monthly maker corner that has been very successful. Projects that can be completed in a lunch period or that allow for collaborative work will be our goal. Diana's tips will help keep us from getting overwhelmed and keep the focus on making!

"If you haven't had time to look up from the frenzy, the end of the year is HERE! And with the end of another academic year, often comes the annual gathering of stats. Jess Denke, Public Services Librarian at the Trexler Library at DeSales University, has created an infographic that really illustrates how her library was used."

This is such a great idea! I am seeing more history and science classes this year, so while my circulation numbers are down, the number of students doing research in the library has increased dramatically. If you're not already following, the Librarian Design Share blog is full of great tips!

Stony Evans writes: There are numerous Future Ready components that we can strive to provide for our learning communities through our library services. In fact, if we could aspire to show evidence in each of these areas, we would have an exemplary school library program. In our school library program at Lakeside High School, we still have several components that need growth. It is a continuous cycle of improvement. We never arrive, but we must always strive to improve."

Stony Evans gives a great analysis of his library programming. I am looking at what we do in our library to see which of the Future Ready areas we're making progress in and which we need to address. Having the Future Ready information at hand to support my requests for our remodel really helped!

The School Libraries section of the 2014 State of America's Libraries Report provides an overview of the top school library trends of the past year. School libraries are at a critical point: Budget and testing pressures have led to decisions to eliminate or deprofessionalize school libraries, but the increased emphasis on college and career readiness and the integration of technology makes them more critical than ever. School librarians’ collaboration with other educators is key to literacy and imlementation of Common Core State Standards. The American Library Association (ALA) is undertaking an advocacy campaign for school libraries that sets goals in five critical areas.

Muitos exames sobrepostos não substituem uma boa escola, e não há boas escolas que não exijam boas bibliotecas. "Budget and testing pressures have led to decisions to eliminate or deprofessionalize school libraries, but the increased emphasis on college and career readiness and the integration of technology makes them more critical than ever. School librarians’ collaboration with other educators is key to literacy and imlementation of Common Core State Standards."

The job description of a school librarian has drastically shifted throughout recent years to adapt to the influx of informational resources presented in a variety of ways. How does collaboration fit into a librarian's already-busy schedule?

A pretty well-reasoned, fundamental thought process for most knowledge work research. This serves as an even better backward (there-to-here) model to guide the core research workflow process automation a knowledge worker may want to devise, install. Think work product-informed -> DevonThink structures -> DevonAgent w/'Active Filtered' automated searches. The most important drivers here are - 'ethical' - (more than just multiple sources, a stage needs to be added at the work product stage to provide authenticity) and - 'bias' - (a post automated search, subsequent manual search for corroborating items selection to provide authority).

School librarians must be assertive leaders and technology experts, Joel Castro, associate superintendent for the Lubbock, Texas, School District, told attendees at SLJ's annual Leadership Summit in Austin in September.

My favorite part, bolded and in italics: "When every student has the potential to carry a global library on the device in his or her pocket, the role of physical libraries may become even more important, not just a place to house resources, but one in which to create meaning from them."

Kendra Perkins is the Coordinator for the Shanghai Librarian Network, the International Librarian Network Ambassador for China and Head Librarian at YK Pao Secondary School in China. For more inspiration, check out her blog. What is the CRAAP Test & How can I use it? It’s common knowledge that that the Internet can be …

The new HESLP rubric is designed to foster partnerships and collaborations based on mutual support and ongoing dialogue between teacher-librarians and their administrators. This revised rubric highlights student-centered learning, emphasized in the Colorado Academic and Common Core Standards. Teacher-librarians can use the rubric to identify where they can have a greater impact on student learning.This 2016 rubric represents a change in thinking about how teacher-librarians and library programs are viewed and valued. This rubric emphasizes teacher leadership and values collaboration among administrators, staff, students and the community—shifting the view from that of a support role to that of a guide for staff and students to transform learning practice. Most importantly, it also opens the conversation for how teachers and teacher-librarians are designing student-centric learning opportunities and collecting evidence of their impact on student learning.

This rubric uses the performance scale of Basic - Partially Proficient - Proficient - Accomplished - Exemplary, with descriptors of each level. I think this can be used to assist teacher librarians in developing their role statement and informing their professional learning plan for the year. It is certainly a powerful document to help inform a conversation between a TL and their principal, particularly with regard to their role as a teacher.

This rubric uses the performance scale of Basic - Partially Proficient - Proficient - Accomplished - Exemplary, with descriptors of each level. I think this can be used to assist teacher librarians in developing their role statement and informing their professional learning plan for the year. It is certainly a powerful document to help inform a conversation between a TL and their principal, particularly with regard to their role as a teacher.

This rubric uses the performance scale of Basic - Partially Proficient - Proficient - Accomplished - Exemplary, with descriptors of each level. I think this can be used to assist teacher librarians in developing their role statement and informing their professional learning plan for the year. It is certainly a powerful document to help inform a conversation between a TL and their principal, particularly with regard to their role as a teacher.

This rubric uses the performance scale of Basic - Partially Proficient - Proficient - Accomplished - Exemplary, with descriptors of each level. I think this can be used to assist teacher librarians in developing their role statement and informing their professional learning plan for the year. It is certainly a powerful document to help inform a conversation between a TL and their principal, particularly with regard to their role as a teacher.

These are the people who will integrate the digital world into today’s classroom and throughout the curriculum. Specially trained and knowledgeable in the use of information technology, library media specialists have become one of the most important instructional partners, working with teachers and administrators to change what is possible in the classroom.

"it’s critical that administrators responsible for hiring key personnel pay close attention to the evaluation and selection of library media specialists". #Scholastic adds (again) key info for advocacy of school libraries

Click above to view full image! Any book lover can tell you: diving into a great novel is an immersive experience that can make your brain come alive with imagery and emotions and even turn on your senses.

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